Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003

Effect of plan termination notice

90 (1) This paragraph applies if the company has issued a plan termination notice under paragraph 89.

(2) No further shares may be awarded to individuals under the plan.

(3) The trustees must remove the plan shares from the plan as soon as practicable after whichever is the later of—

(a) the end of the notice period, or

(b) the first date on which the shares may be removed from the plan without giving rise to a charge to income tax under sections 501 to 507 (SIPs: tax charges) on the participant on whose behalf they are held.

(4) In sub-paragraph (3) “the notice period” means the period of 3 months beginning with the date on which the requirements imposed by the plan in accordance with paragraph 89(2) are met in respect of the plan termination notice.

(5) The trustees may remove a participant’s shares from the plan at an earlier date with the participant’s consent.

(6) Any consent given by the participant before receiving a copy of the plan termination notice is to be disregarded for the purposes of sub-paragraph (5).

(7) As soon as practicable after the plan termination notice is issued, the trustees must pay any money held on an individual’s behalf to the individual.

(8) In this paragraph references to the trustees removing the plan shares from the plan are to their doing the following in the case of each participant—

(a) transferring the shares to the participant on behalf of whom they are held, or to another person, at the participant’s direction, or

(b) disposing of the shares and accounting (or holding themselves ready to account) for the proceeds to the participant or to another person at the participant’s direction.

(9) Where a participant has died, the references in this paragraph to a participant are to the participant’s personal representatives.